A while back we were asked to do some 360 degree photography by one of our regular clients. However, the need was for large and heavy items to be photographed, 36 shots at regular 10 degree movements, on location. With products weighing in at up to 100kg and standing over 100cm high, it was clear that we needed a bespoke solution that could be packed away and transported to the clients location.

Off the shelf turntables fall into two categories – small tabletop turntables (not up to this job) or vast turntables not portable (ie for automotive). What we came up with was a simple solution that fits in a car & cost under £100… 

This involved a fair bit of thought, to mark out the graduations but is elegantly simple – has now been painted white and seen quite a bit of use. 1 meter squared sections of 25mm thickness MDF, a bales catch and heavy duty nylon castors (thankyou Screwfix). The bales catch provides positive latching to the indents on the base and the top section with product centered on top is manually rotated 1 click per shot.

This has become another of those studio tools that is just so simple, yet a joy to use and provides perfect 360 degree images for use as GIF’s or manually rotated web images.